


The Friendship of Wardens

by Wispy_Raindrop



Category: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Fantastic Racism, Friendship, Gen, Introspection, Racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 22:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11976831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wispy_Raindrop/pseuds/Wispy_Raindrop
Summary: Kalis Tabris never thought she could call these people 'friends'.





	The Friendship of Wardens

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for some racism that is directed towards humans and the Dalish. This Warden of mine ended up not liking either group very much and while she ended up befriending some people from those groups she didn't completely get over it by endgame. Sorry is this bothers anyone but that's how her character ended up developing.
> 
> Also, the italics are taken from in-game dialogue. The second bit comes from a conversation between the Warden and a dwarven woman found in Dust Town that was cast out by her family when she had a casteless son. I couldn't remember the exact wording of the conversation, nor could I find it, so it's not exact. The words in bold are things Kalis has said.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little introspective of one of my Wardens.

Kalis Tabris on her Friendships, 9:31 Dragon

 

The hall roared with laughter and noise, the soldier's merriment bouncing off the walls. Kalis looked on from the corner in which she lurked, brow furrowed as her green-blue eyes darted between the speakers. Everyone was huddled around one of the long tables, the soldiers and newer Wardens from Orlais or recently Joined from Ferelden's number listening rapturously to one of Anders' outrageous tales of his escape from the Tower of Magi. Oghren was the loudest among them, throwing in lewd jokes whenever he found the opportunity. Sigrun added her own input on ways he could have more easily avoided capture and even Nathaniel got in a quip or two. Velanna sat scowling just a bit away from them, both with them and yet still just enough of an outsider to avoid participating, though occasionally Kalis saw her lips twitch into the shadow of a smile. Justice merely frowned, not quite understanding it yet clearly thinking a large portion of whatever Anders was saying was "unjust".

Kalis couldn't tell if her heart was warm or cold at the sight of them together.

In a way she felt a bit like Velanna or Justice, someone who resented a good portion of these people and was set apart from them. She was their Commander, the Commander of the Grey in Ferelden, but she was also their companion just as they were hers. It was strange, she supposed, that she had come this far.

 

**_I killed the arl's son for raping my best friend._ **

 

She hated humans, couldn't stand the lot of them. She loathed nobles even more. Perhaps she really had burned Amaranthine out of some lingering spit for them like the surviving nobles whispered in the night behind closed doors. Or maybe she had just been afraid of losing the Keep and all her friends trapped within its walls.

Friends. It was still odd to think of them as such.

 

**_You could go to the surface. It is my kind they resent, not yours._ **

 

_ You sound so encouraging and yet bitter in the same breathe. _

 

She was bitter, she knew, even now, even after all this time. She huffed, shaking her head in silent reprimand. A year and a half had passed now since that fateful day in the Alienage. Nearly two years since her marriage that wasn't to be and the ruin that fell upon her friends, family and home. So maybe, just maybe, it wasn't strange to think of having friends outside of her little grimy, dirty community.

Though perhaps it was still a bit weird to consider these specific people 'friends'. Or maybe it was just that they were 'these people' that they could be called such? Kalis was not sure if she would ever have an answer to that.

 

_ You know, one good thing about the Blight is how it brings people together. _

 

_ I haven't felt this close to anyone in a long time. I really enjoy your company. _

 

_ Of all the things I could have imagined could have resulted when Flemeth told me to go with you, the very last would be that I would find in you a friend or... perhaps even a sister. _

 

Kalis had no problem with dwarves, having had few encounters with them Before and the ones she had met in Denerim were kind enough to her. Qunari she had barely even heard of and never once had an intelligent golem seemed possible before that trip to the quiet village the darkspawn had sacked. Zevran she understood far more than she would have thought.

It was the presence of humans, however, that had chafed and itched through most of her journey. It was necessary but she didn't like it.

Somehow, though, they didn’t seem so bad in the end, didn’t seem quite so cruel and heartless as the ones in Denerim. Not even Wynne, who lectured endlessly about responsibility. But why should Kalis be responsible for human lives when they cared nothing for the lives of elves?

Perhaps, though, it was Alistair’s talk of the Wardens, of their acceptance, of Duncan’s weirdly kind smile, how impressed they both were with her skill even though what training her mother gave her was minimum and little practiced under the ever watchful eyes of prejudiced guards.

But those humans talked and expected nothing from her except what was expected of a Grey Warden.

Perhaps that was why she invoked the Right for Anders, gave Nathaniel a second chance, sought to help Velanna find her sister, accepted Justice despite his Fade origins.

Kalis Tabris still hated humans, still looked at them with scorn and wariness like a stray cat still getting used to a more permanent home. She still sneered at the Dalish and their false sense of ‘superiority’, of being the only ‘true’ elves. But, she could admit, perhaps not all of the were so bad.

And, perhaps, she was even glad she could call them friends. 


End file.
